Whatley is a small rural village and civil parish near Frome in the English county of Somerset. The hamlet of Lower Whatley is to the south of the village. The hamlet of Chantry, part of the civil parish, lies 1 mile to the west.

Historic Descriptions

1822 - Somersetshire delineated by Christopher & John Greenwood

A parish in the hundred of Frome, 3 miles W. from Frome -, containing 77 inhabited houses, and 79 families, 40 of whom are employed in agriculture. The church is dedicated to St. George, and consists of a nave, chancel, and south aisle, with a tower at the west end surmounted by a spire. The living is a rectory, in the deanery of Frome; Rev. T. Williams, incumbent ; instituted 1812. Population, 1801, 304 — 1811, 347 — 1821, 354.

1875 - Somersetshire edited by Edward Robert Kelly

WHATLEY is a parish and village, 118 miles from London, 3 south-west from Frome railway station, in the Eastern division of the county, hundred, union and county court district, deanery of Frome, Wells archdeaconry, and diocese of Bath and Wells, situated on the Bath and Wells turnpike road, on high ground, in a pleasant dry situation, diversified with hill and dale. The church, supposed to have been dedicated to St. George, is an ancient stone building, and consists of chancel, nave, north and south chapels, with vestry on the north side, quadrangular tower with 5 bells, and four pinnacles, and a lofty octagonal spire rising from its summit, and south porch; the chancel was restored in 1857, and the other portions of the church in 1870: in the south chapel, on an altar tomh, is a recumbent figure of one of the Servington family; there is likewise a remarkable Hagioscope: the east window and two others in the chancel are stained: it is paved with encaustic tiles, seated with open benches to hold 115 people. The register dates from the year 1672. The living is a rectory, yearly value £223, with residence and 18 acres of glebe land, in the gift of John Francis Fortescue Horner, esq., and held by the Rev. James Henry Moore, M.A., of University College, Durham. There is a National school for boys and girls, in which a Sunday school is held. The charities are £2 14s. yearly. The Wesleyans have a chapel here. In this parish extensive remains of an ancient Roman villa exist, which evidently formed the head-quarters and rallying-point of a numerous body of their troops; and the word vallis, used to denote that magnificent vale between Whatley and Frome, is of Roman origin. In the year 940 Edmund, King of the West Saxons, gave this manor to the church of Glastonbury. The monks thereof held it at the Conquest, and were lords paramount until the dissolution of their houses. John Francis Fortescue Horner, esq., is lord of the manor; John H. Shore, esq., and the Rev. James George C. Fussell, of Chantry, are principal landowners. The soil is clayey, and the subsoil is various, resting on limestone, which predominate here. The land is chiefly in pasturage for dairy purposes. The acreage is 1,209 : rateable value, £2,617; the population in 1871 was 406.